When you get the "do I still want to continue doing this?" feeling

Hi all, in your time of pursuing this hobby, have you ever felt the feeling like do I really want to continue doing this? Is it too much work? I have started this hobby back last summer, so not that long. I have enjoyed it over the time of doing. Especially now that we are in quarantine, it is nice having so that I can stare at them all day. Its quite relaxing. However, I do get the feeling sometimes that like it takes too much effort to keep the fish happy. At the beginning, I had my battle with ich that lasted quite a while. I finally cured it after maybe a couple months. I've never seen it again until a couple days ago when I added a new female GBR into my tank. She is now covered in white spots. This is really disheartening. I'm not sure what to do now. I'm spent quite a bit of money on this fish tank, but is it worth it? Has anyone else felt this and pursued it or found ways to keep them interested in the hobby? I do want to keep the hobby, but is it really for me?

 

Yep. Right now i have exactly 0 fish. In 20 something years I have had at times too many tanks to count down to one up to yea again too many and now my 75 is half full of water with just pest snails.

 

Once. It was when I was beginner and I had lost interest in my 10 gallon that stored guppies. They were cheap, and I did clean the tank and kept up with maintenance, but then it just became a cycle and it wasn't "exciting" to do the same thing over and over again. I don't do that anymore, I came back into the hobby with a bigger tank and a type of fish that was easy to care for but looked amazing to me. The thought that my fish's life (or lives) depend on me keeps me going, but there are times where you doubt yourself. I'm thinking if I go into a type of fish that is expensive or hard to care for I would fully engage myself into the hobby.

 

Its hard knowing when to take it down. My family likes me having it because they like seeing the fish too and I do get quite a lot of compliments on it when we used to be able to have people over. The hard part is knowing when to take it down and how to do it with the fish still in there

 

Once. It was when I was beginner and I had lost interest in my 10 gallon that stored guppies. They were cheap, and I did clean the tank and kept up with maintenance, but then it just became a cycle and it wasn't "exciting" to do the same thing over and over again. I don't do that anymore, I came back into the hobby with a bigger tank and a type of fish that was easy to care for but looked amazing to me. The thought that my fish's life (or lives) depend on me keeps me going, but there are times where you doubt yourself. I'm thinking if I go into a type of fish that is expensive or hard to care for I would fully engage myself into the hobby.

Yes, that is it exactly. The excitement seems to have left me a little and the constant water changes are a bit much, especially when you got a 20 gallon with quite a bit of fish!

 

Yeah, I get that feeling when I have another unexplainable fish death, or an algae explosion, or plants that just refuse to grow... Then I notice some shrimp have finally bred after years of trying to make it happen, or get a new idea for a tank, and I'm right back where I started, ha.

 

I haven't had any new babbies for quite some time. I did have two little baby guppies for a while but they somehow weren't able to make it and both ended up dying. That part is a little saddening

 

Yeah especially in a situation like yours. A disease outbreak can really put a dampener on things.

 

I stopped when I went to college. I couldn't handle it. I agree that fish can be hard to keep. I really got into planted tanks, and it's more relaxing. So right now that's all I want to work on. Switching things around and continuing to learn new things keeps me going. If a certain aspect of the hobby is not entertaining to me, I try to do it differently. Maybe you can try a balanced tank with plants, where water changes don't need to be as frequent, just topping off the evaporated water. Or try reproducing your fish (I did it with angels and African chiclids; in the same tank, years apart). Or reproduce guppies and get an Oscar to feed him guppies when you get too many (it's fun to see the Oscar hunt, and he becomes familiar with you, like a dog hehe)... Which I also did in the same tank, come to think of it. So, yeah. Try different things, different fish. Or take a break if you need to. If this is for you, you'll be back.

 

That hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm pretty sure I don't ever want more than the 4 tanks I have at home and one at work.

 

I lost around $70 dollars on a group of CPDs that came with columnaris, it quite saddended me to see they slowly drop. Then the otocinclus group I was housing. They just fall like flies, so no reason. I witnessed the death of my last oto, he was simply inactive and managed to get himself stuck in java moss and died there.

Very dampening moment there.